benign tumors?

Question

I want to know if it is possible for the human body to reasorb tumors and destroy the tumors on its own. I remember hearing about how the human body has the capacity to heal itself.

Also, how does chemo and radiation help destroy tumors?

Answer 1

First, it helps to understand cancer. A cancer cell is a cell that lacks the marker that tells the cell what it is - a skin cell, hair cell, brain cell, etc. When this cell starts to multiply, it becomes a tumor. I do not know about reabsorbing or destroying tumors, but I do know that it is possible for a tumor to shrink or disappear.

Chemo and radiation work in two different ways. Chemo attacks fast growing cells. Cancer cells grow fast. So do hair and stomach lining cells, which is why chemo can cause hair loss and digestive problems (without the ability to replace the stomach lining cells fast the acid in our stomach attacks the stomach lining). Radiation works by mutating or burning the cells, which is why the site where radiation is applied often looks a little sunburnt.

I learned most of this from losing 40% of my family (my generation and one previous) to cancer and from a kind biology professor who explained the condition in simple terms. The explaination may not be exactly accurate but has never been challenged. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

A tumour is where, for some reason, cells grow faster that normal for their location and cause a 'lump' of some sort.

This can be due to cancer (malignant growth) or benign (non-malignant growth).

Some benign tumour can go away without treatment.

Chemo helps by poisoning the cells and stopping them from multiplying, or killing the cells altogether.

Radiation can also kill cells or at least stop their ability to multiply.

By doing this the radiation and chemo can do anything from slowing tumour growth to stopping growth through to shrinking the tumour.